Lost Lands of Witch World by Andre Norton

and they hold it is for the use of women only.”
    â€œTrue enough. But there is more than one kind of Power. Did our father not have his own version of it? The Witches could not deny that, though they would have liked to. All knowledge is not bound up in their own tight little package. Have you not heard of Lormt?”
    At first the name meant nothing to me. And then I recalled a half-heard conversation between Dermont and one of the men who had been with him since he had fled Karsten. Lormt—a repository of records, ancient chronicles.
    â€œBut what have we to learn from the records of old families?”
    Kemoc smiled. “There may be other material there of service to us. Kyllan,” he spoke sharply, as one giving an order, “think of the east!”
    I blinked. His command was foolish. East—what was east?—why should I think of the east? East—east—I hunched my shoulders, alerted by an odd tingle along the nerves. East—There was the north where lay Alizon ready to spring at our throats, and south where Karsten now worried our flanks, and west where lay the ocean roamed by Sulcar ships, with any number of islands and unknown lands beyond the horizon’s rim, such as the land where Simon and Jaelithe had found the true Kolder nest. But to the east there was only a blank—nothing at all—
    â€œAnd tell me the why of that!” Kemoc demanded. “This land has an eastern border too, but have you ever heard any speech of it? Think, now—what lies to the east?”
    I closed my eyes to picture a map of Estcarp as I had seen it many times in use in the field. Mountains—?
    â€œMountains?” I repeated hesitantly.
    â€œAnd beyond those?”
    â€œOnly mountains, on every map nothing else!” I was certain now.
    â€œWhy?”
    Why? He was very right. He had maps showing far north, far south, beyond our boundaries, in every detail. We had ocean charts drawn by the Sulcar. We had nothing—nothing at all for the east. And that very absence of fact was noteworthy.
    â€œThey cannot even think of the east,” Kemoc continued.
    â€œWhat!”
    â€œIt is very true. Question anyone, over a map, of the east. They cannot discuss it.”
    â€œ
Will
not, maybe. But—”
    â€œNo.” Kemoc was definite. “
Cannot
. They are mind-blocked against the east. I am ready to swear to that.”
    â€œThen—but why?”
    â€œThat we must learn. Do you not see, Kyllan, we cannot stay in Estcarp—not if we free Kaththea. The Witches will never allow her out of their hold willingly. And where could we go? Alizon or Karsten would welcome us—as prisoners. The House of Tregarth is too well known. And the Sulcarmen would not aid us when the Witches were our enemies. But suppose we vanish into a country or place they refuse to admit has existence—”
    â€œYes!”
    But it was so perfect an answer that I mistrusted it. Behind the smiling face of fortune often hides the cracked countenance of ill luck.
    â€œIf there is a block in their minds, there is a reason for it, a very good one.”
    â€œWhich I do not deny. It is up to us to discover what it is, and why, and if it can be turned to our purpose.”
    â€œBut if them, why not us—?” I began, and then answered my question with another: “Because of our half-blood?”
    â€œI think so. Let us go to Lormt and perhaps we’ll have more than one explanation.”
    I got to my feet. Suddenly the need to do something, for positive action, was plain to me. “And how do we manage that? Do you suppose that the Council will allow us to roam about Estcarp under the circumstances? I thought you had agreed that we should be obedient, return to the company, act as if we acknowledged defeat.”
    Kemoc sighed. “Do you not find it hard to be young, brother?” he asked. “Of course we shall be watched. We do not know how much